V. I. Lenin

Speech at a Protest Rally Following the

Murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg

January 19, 1919[1]

Brief Newspaper Report

Sent:19 January, 1919First Published:PravdaNo. 14, January 21, 1919; Published according to
thePravdatextSource:Lenin’sCollected Works, 4th English Edition, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1972 Volume 28, page 411Translated:Jim RiordanTranscription/HTML Markup:David Walters & Robert CymbalaOnline Version:V. 	I.	Lenin 	Internet ArchiveMay, 2002

Today the bourgeoisie and the social-traitors are jubilating in
      Berlin-they have succeeded in murdering Karl Liebknecht and Rosa
      Luxemburg. Ebert and Scheidemann, who for four years led the
      workers to the slaughter for the sake of depredation, have now
      assumed the role of butchers of the proletarian leaders. The
      example of the German revolution proves that "democracy" is only
      a camouflage for bourgeois robbery and the most savage
      violence.

Death to the butchers!

[1]On January 15, 1919, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were
      murdered by officers of Noske’s counter-revolutionary troops
      with the connivance of the government of the Right
      Social-Democrats Ebert and Scheidemann. News of the murder
      reached Moscow on January 17 and on the same day it was
      announced by Y. M. Sverdlov by to a joint session of the
      All-Russia Central Executive Committee, the Moscow Soviet and
      All-llussia Congress of Trade Unions. On January 18IzvestiaandPravdapublished an appeal “To All Soviets in Germany and
      All Workers” signed by Sverdlov on behalf of the joint
      session. The Party’s Central Committee and the All-Russia
      Central Executive Committee called on all Party organisations
      and all Soviets to hold demonstrations and protest meetings. On
      January 19 Moscow workers and Red Army units assembled in
      mourning on Sovetskaya Square. Lenin, Sverdlov, Lunacharsky and
      others addressed the demonstrators from the balcony of the
      Moscow Soviet building.